New Facebook layout angers its users yet again

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Facebook has once again redesigned its look, and users are up in arms about it. There are already countless protest groups, angry status messages and even a protest day planned. So what is Facebook doing wrong? How can it undergo the process of growth and evolution without alienating its users? Well, it’s not an easy problem to solve…

The last time Facebook went through a redesign, a few months back, thousands of people took an instant dislike to it. As far as I was concerned this had the feel of a knee-jerk reaction, and surely enough the rage subsided fairly quickly once everybody got their heads around the new layout. This time, however, I wonder whether the people at Facebook will be able to get off so lightly. I like to think that I know a fair amount about user experience after my years of web and application design, and I feel that they may have lost the plot a little bit on this one.

It seems that, in a supposed effort to streamline the user experience, the powers that be have removed a number of front page features, such as the groups and events links, and instead replaced them with a new branch of the news feed. To me, this feels like my control over my social networking activities has taken something of a back seat, to be replaced by a greater degree of snooping into other people’s affairs, a sentiment that has been echoed by a number of other dissatisfied users. It seems highly illogical to me to tidy away such critical functionality in order to make way for the very same information that previously sat happily and conveniently enough in the central news feed.

This whole change to the experience seems strangely illogical and without benefit, and I find myself wondering how the designers came to the conclusion that this approach could in any way be considered an advantage. Facebook endeavors to do a great deal and it was, for the most part, quite successful in achieving most of its goals. Sadly, with this flawed latest version, it seems that a much of what made it popular is being boiled down to a less interactive experience.

While there is always an immediate backlash of negative commentary whenever a system such as this goes through a re-design, this is a normal part of the process. The fact of the matter is that nobody wants to learn a new system every few months. Once the masses become accustomed to a particular interface it is very frustrating to have to re-learn it. For less competent computer users it is more of a struggle to get used to the new arrangement of once-familiar systems, which can be exceedingly frustrating.

I must credit Facebook with having learned something from its previous mistakes as they are at least providing a way for users to feed back their feelings in the form of a “thumbs up or down” vote, as well as a page for people to voice their opinions in greater detail. At the time of writing, the votes in favor of the new layout were at 6,111 while votes against have already reached nearly 75,000 and are increasing every second.

What seems to bother a large number of users is the lack of an opt-out feature whenever Facebook undergoes these sweeping changes. Whereas I was willing to give the last change a chance, and was perfectly happy with the results, I, like thousands more, simply don’t want to use this latest iteration. I’ve given it a good shot, but it simply isn’t as friendly to use as it was before. There are elements of the new Facebook that I like, such as the merging and reconceptualizing of what were once the status update and media posting features, but these improvements could easily have been implemented in the existing system rather than by means of a complete overhaul.

This process of evolution is, of course, a natural part of the life-cycle of such sites, but I wonder whether the people at Facebook could consider their users a little more and perhaps bring such changes in smaller increments. The big difference between the last change and this one is that last time round it was more of a re-arrangement of existing features than a more substantial change of direction. Whereas the Facebook-using public already knew what all the features were, and were quickly able to relocate those that they used, this latest update has left many, including myself, scratching our heads in confusion.

{ad}Part of the problem with trying to please so many users with the kind of tools that Facebook offers is the diversity of its audience. Whereas some users are self-confessed status addicts, others prefer the photo sharing potential. It is starting to become clear that as the site expands and adds new functionality it must also meet its users needs in different ways. Perhaps the site needs to be constructed with a sense of modularity, allowing each user to pick and choose which elements they want, and where they appear. Allowing custom toolbars may be another useful feature that may empower users to create the environment that they desire using the tools that they really use.

My big fear now is that the Facebook people will refuse to back down on this update, as to do so will appear as an admission of failure. While a humble apology, such as the one released during their recent terms and conditions scandal, would be well received and appreciated, I am worried that corporate pigheadedness may come in to play this time around. If that happens then it will surely signify that Facebook has, at last, jumped the shark.

Speak Your Mind

My issue has been with the removing of many features. Some items I can now only access by visiting my own profile that everyone else can see. And then that’s a pain.

juice

The stupid column to the far left is a total waste of space that makes the News Feed section smaller. They also increased the thumb pics in the now smaller News Feed section. Making things all cluttered.

to get rid of all the annoying messages from quiz apps and other silly nuisances, theres a cool greasemonkey script that hides all the annoying spam from quiz applications and their kind from your facebook homepage available here: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/44459

Stacey

For those who miss the Live Feed, I learned that it’s still available on the mobile version of Facebook, though who knows for how long. Go to http://m.facebook.com and log in as usual. Alas, it does not go back as far as the old one did, but I keep it open in a different tab and refresh it occasionally, and I can see who joined what groups, who friended whom, and any photo comments, etc.

Gemma

yeah and even after over 600 thousand people have voted against it (and only 30,000 like it) they still won’t listen to their users and what they want! they are stubborn if you ask me!

Karen Hilyard

“I wonder whether the people at Facebook could consider their users a little more….”
Of
course they should! Users are FB’s breaqd and butter — the entire
reason they can get advertisers. This is the biggest PR debacle since
the launch of New Coke. FB needs to fire its PR and marketing staff
and get some folks who understand industry best practices for
relationship management and PR planning. The first step in the PR
planning process (RACE or ROPE as it is known by its initials) is
RESEARCH. Did FB do any focus groups or beta testing before launching
this change? Did they look at case studies of other new product
launches such as New Coke? Let’s hope like Coke, FB returns quickly to
the classic formula before they lose its most loyal users.

monica

I’d like to report that on the facebook “thumbs up/thumbs down” voting application, the tally is currently 709,658 “thumbs down” to 43,451 “thumbs up”. That’s about 94% on the “No” side.
The “thumbs down” votes also jump about 100 every 30 seconds while the “yes” side jumps about 5-10 votes in the same amount of time. With the thumbs down side closing in on 1 million voters, you’d think facebook would take notice and revert. Something tells me Mark Z.’s ego will still hesitate…

max

Let’s remember… people are a heck of a lot quicker (and louder) to complain than compliment. Additionally, many people are just plain resistant to change (what do you think made “Who Stole My Cheese” so damn popular).
Lets everyone calm down and give the new version a fair shot. If people continue to be dissatisfied then constructive and specific feedback will go much further in getting you what you want than throwing down blanket critisism.
As for me…. I really couldn’t care less as long as I can continue to communicate with my nieces.

Roxi

I must credit Facebook with having learned something from its previous mistakes as they are at least providing a way for users to feed back their feelings in the form of a “thumbs up or down” vote, as well as a page for people to voice their opinions in greater detail.

Don’t credit FB for that. It’s an independent app.
And Max, many of us have given it plenty of a shot. There are tons of good features that are now just … gone.

rlm

I don’t understand why they would back down on the Terms and Conditions issue, which was really nothing more than a semantic misunderstanding, but not add back features they took away. I think this time Facebook has really jumped the shark on this one, and will go back to Flickr for photo sharing and Twitter for status updates until another system can come in that is superior.